A year ago, we introduced OnHub — a router that’s easy to use, and built to be placed front and center in homes (where Wi-Fi works best). Since then, we've been busy delivering on our promise that OnHub keeps getting better.

Today, we’re celebrating OnHub’s first birthday and announcing a new partnership with Philips Lighting, the first connected home device you can control directly with OnHub. We know people don’t like having too many apps on their phones, so we made it possible to control your home’s Philips Hue lights without downloading an app. Now anyone connected to your OnHub can type “On.Here” in a computer, tablet, or mobile browser and control the most popular features of your Philips Hue lights from there. Crank up the party lights!

Apart from Philips Hue, here are 10 awesome things OnHub lets you do:

1. Be the host with the most (Wi-Fi). The OnHub guest network is a place just for guests. And since you may not want to make all of the devices on your primary network available for guests to access, you can pick and choose which gadgets you share (like your printer or TV).

2. Pinpoint what’s slowing you down. OnHub's Network Check feature measures both the speed of your Wi-Fi router and the speed of the service you're getting from your ISP. This lets you pinpoint if there's a problem with your ISP or Wi-Fi.

3. Find the fastest Wi-Fi channel. OnHub constantly scans to make sure your Wi-Fi is on the fastest possible channel. In addition, OnHub automatically switches devices to whichever Wi-Fi band is faster (2.4GHz or 5Ghz) to give you a better Wi-Fi experience. Many Wi-Fi devices don’t automatically select the fastest available connection, so OnHub does it for you.

4. Stay secure. OnHub gets automatic security updates from Google’s cloud to help protect your network, your data, and all of your devices, without interrupting your connection. That means you’ll never have to worry about missing critical security upgrades.

5. Control with a wave of your hand. Sometimes in a busy home, one device needs more bandwidth than others. With the OnHub from ASUS, Wave Control allows you to boost Wi-Fi speed for a specific device simply by passing your hand over the top of your OnHub.

6. Call your Chromebook “Game of Chromes.” Or something. With so many devices online in a typical home, you’ll need a clear name for each one so you can properly prioritize. Custom device naming allows you to give each one its own unique name on the OnHub network.

7. Give your network name some ❤️. Spice up your home’s Wi-Fi network by giving it a name with personality, or if needed, a name with direction (i.e., “UseThisOneMom”). OnHub lets you choose whatever name you want for your router network, and you can even include emojis. 🎵 🤖!

8. Get shells to match your home design. Custom shells in white and gold, black and silver, and natural bamboo make it easy for you to place your OnHub in a central location, where Wi-Fi works best. You can find all the shells today on the Google Store.

For those who want to design their own router shell, we also created the OnHub Makers site, where you can access open source design files. With or without these shells, OnHub was created to be out in the open. Its hardware design was honored as a Top Winner at the 2016 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA®), and a Gold winner at the 2016 International Design Awards (IDA).

9. Make basic tasks more… basic. OnHub is the first router to support IFTTT — a service that lets you connect different websites, apps, and other devices to create “recipes” which perform simple actions. That means you can use your OnHub to automate basic tasks and devices. For example, if a particular mobile device connects to your OnHub, then prioritize Wi-Fi on that device. Learn more at go.co/onhubifttt.

10. Share and share alike. Everyone connected to your OnHub — on both the primary and guest Wi-Fi networks — can enter “On.Here” into any browser on a phone, tablet, or computer and quickly see all of the devices that are available on the guest network. Philips Hue lights are the first connected home device you can not only access, but control, directly from On.Here. Learn more about On.Here.

As you can see, OnHub is a lot more than a router that gives you fast Wi-Fi. Watch our video to see the Top 5 Reasons Why OnHub is More Than a Router:

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has given us feedback on how OnHub is solving their Wi-Fi problems. If you’d like to see for yourself, we’re offering $20 off OnHub from TP-LINK sold in the Google Store and Amazon in the next month — just grab your OnHub online between now and September 30. Happy birthday, OnHub!

Over the past three months, Durita Andreassen and a few friendly sheep equipped with solar-powered cameras strapped to their woolly backs set out to collect imagery of the Faroe Islands for Street View. The 18 Faroe Islands are home to just 50,000 people, but — fittingly for a country whose name means “Sheep Island” — there are 70,000 sheep roaming the green hills and volcanic cliffs of the archipelago. So when Durita decided to document the country for Street View, sheep weren’t a baaad place to start.

When we herd about the Sheep View project, we thought it was shear brilliance. So we decided to help the Faroese by supplying them with a Street View trekker and 360 cameras via our Street View camera loan program. Last week, the Google Maps team arrived in the Faroe Islands to help train and equip the local community to capture even more (but slightly less woolly) Street View imagery.

Now that the Faroe Islands is supplied with a Trekker and 360 cameras, residents and tourists can assist the sheep in collecting Street View imagery of their beautiful lands using selfie-sticks, bikes, backpacks, cars, kayaks, horses, ships and even wheelbarrows. The Visit Faroe Islands office in Tórshavn and Atlantic Airways at the airport will be lending out Street View 360 cameras to visitors willing to lend a hoof.

The Faroe Islands have shown us that even sheep can contribute to Street View. If your hometown or favorite hiking trail hasn’t made it into Google Maps yet, grab your own 360 camera or apply to borrow one from us through our Street View camera loan program. We’re excited to see what ewe map!

Posted by David Castro González de Vega, Google Maps Program Managerhttps://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fzv6Y0RTrws/V8YrY8mjULI/AAAAAAAAS18/qBSLmHwW310gItDLSnioxX94Z3CxkwD5gCLcB/s1600/primaryimage2_10mb.jpgDavid Castro González de VegaGoogle Maps Program ManagerGoogle

Today we’re dealing two new hands from the Google Search deck: solitaire and tic-tac-toe. Now you can play two of the oldest and most popular games for all ages, on desktop and in the Google app.

It’s been said solitaire’s roots are in fortune telling. If that’s true, today your fate rests on your quick wit and the luck of the draw. When you search for “solitaire” on Google, the familiar patience game may test yours!

If you’re looking for something a bit simpler, tic-tac-toe is your best bet. In this game of naughts and crosses, you can select your level of difficulty or even go head to head against a friend. Xs and Os to the winner (hugs and kisses, that is!).

In the Kenai Fjords, the ice is so dense it forms blues brighter than the clear Alaskan sky above. The molten rock around the (very) active Kīlauea Volcano appears to swirl and move — and sometimes it really does! At Bryce Canyon, one of the darkest places in North America, you can see the massive Milky Way glittering across the night sky.

The U.S. National Parks are full of wonders, but most people don’t get the chance to visit in person. While nothing beats the real thing, for this month’s 100th anniversary of the National Parks Service, we wanted to see if we could use Google’s technology to help share the parks with everyone.
Starting today anyone can take a virtual tour of some of our most breathtaking National Parks, no matter where you are, with Google’s The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks.

This Google Arts & Culture exhibit and interactive documentary in honor of this month’s NPS Centennial is available on the web and in the Google Arts & Culture App on iOS/Android. You can immerse yourself in 360-degree video tours through some of the most remote and breathtaking places in five different National Parks. And if you want to learn more about what you’re seeing, you can browse the fascinating archive of artifacts from the National Parks’ many museums.

At each park, a local ranger guides you through places most people never get to go — spelunking through ancient caves at Carlsbad Caverns, flying above active volcanoes in Hawai’i, and swimming through the coral reefs of the Dry Tortugas in Florida.

We’ve also created the Hidden Worlds Expedition for educators to help open up new learning opportunities and share these experiences with even more people. The Expedition can be accessed on the Expeditions App (available on Google Play in the U.S.).

Today's Doodle celebrating U.S. National Parks & monuments. More info at google.com/doodles.

The National Parks are American treasures, and everyone should see what they have to offer. We hope that by making it easy for people to get a taste of the wilderness, we can encourage a new generation of parks goers to head out and explore in person. Get ready for an adventure!

Posted by Nick Carbonaro, Creative Leadhttps://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5HXhhpSveDo/V8CUhSpQP7I/AAAAAAAAS1E/dizFEZU6_M4hvuSnjs7ngJ3GhWfTHbyVQCLcB/s1600/NPS.pngNick CarbonaronPrincipal Software Engineer
Video calling is the next best thing to being with someone in person, but too often it can be a frustrating or complicated experience. You shouldn’t have to worry about whether your call will connect, or if your friend is using the same type of device as you are. It’s no wonder that nearly half of us never make video calls on mobile*.

Today, we’re releasing Google Duo — a simple 1-to-1 video calling app available for Android and iOS. Duo takes the complexity out of video calling, so that you can be together in the moment wherever you are.

Google Duo works across Android and iOS — all you need is a phone number
Simple interface
Duo is simple from start to finish. To get started, all you need is your phone number and you’ll be able to reach people in your phone’s contacts list. No separate account is required, so you can sign up in just a few steps. From there, you can instantly begin a video call with a single tap.

Fast and reliable
We all know how it feels when a call fails to connect or when video gets choppy. We’ve built Duo to be fast and reliable, so that video calls connect quickly and work well even on slower networks. Call quality adjusts to changing network conditions to keep you connected — when bandwidth is limited, Duo will gracefully reduce the resolution to keep the call going smoothly. For video calls on the go, Duo will switch between Wi-Fi and cellular data automatically without dropping your call. You can start your call at home, and continue seamlessly even when you head out the door.

Human design
We designed Duo to feel warm and inviting, focused on just you and the person you’re calling. To make calls feel more like an invitation rather than an interruption, we created a feature in Duo called Knock Knock which lets you see live video of your caller before you answer, giving you a sense of what they’re up to and why they want to chat. Knock Knock makes video calling more spontaneous and welcoming, helping you connect with the person before you even pick up.

Knock Knock in Duo lets you see who’s calling before you pick up

Finally, we built Duo with an emphasis on privacy and security, and all Duo calls are end-to-end encrypted.

Give your friends a wave with Duo! We’re beginning to roll out Duo for Android and iOS today, and it will be live worldwide in the next few days.

This year's Olympics in Rio brings together 10,500 athletes from 200+ countries to participate in 306 events, from archery to wrestling. To help you get even more out of the Games, we've created a Google Trends Olympic Hub where you can find fun facts, data insights, feature pages on sports and athletes, and more.

Olympics Trends Hub
Throughout the next few weeks, Google Trends will give you a unique view into the games with a new Trends Hub just for the Olympics. There, you’ll be able to see which athletes, events and moments are captivating audiences—and searches—worldwide. For example, which country is searching for beach volleyball the most? Landlocked Switzerland. And the title of most searched grandmother in the world goes to British swimmer Adam Peaty's nan.

Here’s some of what you can expect from Trends over the next few weeks:

Search insights revealing what the world is wondering about the events—from fencing to synchronized swimming (and every moment in between!)

Data interactives like our alternative medal table and top searched sports per country

Trending sports and athletes lists, showing what’s of interest at any given moment

Explore Trends in a new way
As you explore the site, you may notice something else—a new Google Trends Explore page. With a fresh design and features like a color-coded map, you can analyze search data in new ways. For example, you can compare interest in previous Olympic Games over the years:

Every four years, the Olympics captivate the world’s attention. We’re excited to be able to help fans get even more out of the Games with insights from Search.

The summer just got sweeter. Today marks the season opener of the 2016 Doodle Fruit Games. For the next couple of weeks in the latest Google app for Android and iOS, journey to an otherwise unassuming fruit stand in Rio, where produce from all over the market are ripe to compete for the title of freshest fruit.

The name of today’s featured game is to see who’s the fastest fruit on the track in this berry special race. Don’t be MELONcholy if your sprint turns into more of a smoothie.

If you like the taste of that, be sure to weave your way through the ice cooler to see if you’re the chillest lemon around. Remember: No one likes sour losers!

We hope you find these fruits as apPEELing as we do. And don’t forget to share your cherry impressive results with friends to see who claims the top seed. These two games are just a taste of what's in store, so come back to the Google app throughout the week to catch the featured game of the day.

The modern Olympic Games have been a defining moment for athletes and fans alike dating back to 1896. Next week, the 2016 cauldron will be lit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where thousands of athletes will come together to represent the strength and pride of their home countries with the world as their audience.

In celebration of the next chapter in Olympics history, we’re bringing the best our products have to offer to help people around the world stay up-to-date with the Olympic Games Rio 2016:

Watch official broadcasters’ event highlights on YouTube in 60+ countries

Explore Rio and venues in Google Maps

Keep up to date with the latest search Trends from around the world

On Google, searching for information about your favorite athletes and sports, the medal race, or your country’s schedule has never been easier. Pro tip: if you search on the Google app on Android and iOS, you’ll also see an option to get automatic updates on top event and medal wins, so you’ll never miss a beat.

To give you a glimpse into the Games, watch official broadcasters’ video highlights on YouTube in more than 60 countries around the world. And as an added bonus, YouTube is sending 15 top creators to Rio, giving you a taste of what it’s like to be there with mobile live streaming.

With Street View in Google Maps, everyone can enjoy the magic of Rio de Janeiro. Even if you’re a world away, preview the places where the world's most talented athletes will make history and explore the breathtaking beauty of Brazil.